Boardgames anyone?
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Just got back from a gaming night - played in the second round of a game of Descent... which we won after 2 rounds of combat. As it was over so quickly we ended up playing a couple of intro games of King of Tokyo which is a pretty fast dice-based game. Really good fun with 4 people and would certainly be good with a beer or two.

Also played more Munchkin and started a Mordheim campaign this weekend as well. Munckin is as good as ever, obviously. Mordheim is a GW spin-off of Warhammer which uses small bands of about 10 or so warriors in a skirmish game. Your warband levels up, earns experience and weapons, can even take permanent injuries (they could lose an eye, have disfiguring scars which cause fear, get captured or die for good).

If you have a bunch of WH models around and want something smaller scale there's far worse things you could do - plus the rules and resources are free. Only downside is that you need a decent amount of scenery to make a good game of it. There's rules for climbing/falling/diving charges etc and having clear lines of sight everywhere just makes range weapons too powerful. We just made a few things out of old cereal boxes and random odds and ends (an upside down box of Heroes for a tower, stockpots for dirt mounds to give some light cover...).

disusedgenius wrote:
Mordheim is a GW spin-off of Warhammer which uses small bands of about 10 or so warriors in a skirmish game. Your warband levels up, earns experience and weapons, can even take permanent injuries (they could lose an eye, have disfiguring scars which cause fear, get captured or die for good).

If you have a bunch of WH models around and want something smaller scale there's far worse things you could do - plus the rules and resources are free. Only downside is that you need a decent amount of scenery to make a good game of it. There's rules for climbing/falling/diving charges etc and having clear lines of sight everywhere just makes range weapons too powerful. We just made a few things out of old cereal boxes and random odds and ends (an upside down box of Heroes for a tower, stockpots for dirt mounds to give some light cover...).

Ah Mordheim, the Warhammer fantasy version of Necromunda. How do the two compare? Played a lot of Necromunda in my time, hell I even played Gorkamorka (anyone remember that?) but for some reason never really got into Mordheim.

Amazingly, I found someone else in Irthlingborough who plays board games. Had a few hours last night playing level 7: The Escape, which was great fun even if I was the poor sod that kept becoming the alien magnet (still won every game though!) before giving Death Angels a try which I thought was ok, if a bit complicated-sounding at the start. Probably more a game for train journeys than any sort of serious play.

Going to have a good fat session of Netrunner with him next week and then maybe try out Red November if we can find a third person to play with us.

Bloody hell, Race for the Galaxy is awesome! Needed to find a youtube tutorial before I could come to that conclusion though. Going to teach my fiancee San Juan and then upgrade from there. Still don't think she'll ever want to sit down to Netrunner though.

Waffleaber wrote:
Forbidden Island arrived yesterday. First co-operative game me and the missus have played and it was great fun. Much more than eyeing each other suspiciously in silence playing Netrunner.

I'm definately going to keep my eye out for some more 2 player suitable co-ops from now.

I've just played Dday dice for the second time and it was really good fun as a cooperative game (2-4 player). First time I played it was a bit of a disaster as we didn't get the tactics until too late, but we stormed past the training mission and then took Omaha beach by the skin of our teeth. Games last around an hour.

There is an option to count individual scores too, but it does require cooperation to win. And if one player loses everyone loses

Went for my gaming night last night. Finally got round to Netrunner (awesome!) and then tried Eclipse for the first time with the Rise of the Ancients expansion. After 4 hours (bearing in mind 3 of us were first timers), this was the table at the end of the night....

I picked up City of Horror (my first proper board game) a couple of weeks ago after reading EG's review and checking the rating on Amazon and a few other sources.

I have to say that it's absolutely brilliant.

A little context - a few of my friends are 'kind of' into games - they'll play the big releases as well as the yearly franchises. They'll also sometimes latch onto the odd game I send their way that's a little more 'out there', yet 9 times out of 10 they do not. I expected derisive laughs (at my expense) and a hard-sell when I picked up CoH, and that's exactly what I got.

5 of us sat down when I bought it and I urged them to give it a try. As we were all learning the rules bit by bit (takes roughly 30-45 minutes) we gradually saw how great this game would be and all the variables that would make it so. We played our first game eventually, and though we were constantly referencing the rulebook (not to mention the game last 2+ hours) we had a ton of fun and started another game up straight away. I was really surprised at how much we all enjoyed it, and how their resistance faded as we were setting it all up.

Fast forward to now - over the last few weeks I must've played nearly 20 games with different amounts of people each time, as well as 10+ of my friends now knowing how to play the game inside out. I get a text or two A DAY asking if we can set a game up after we all finish work.

Keep in mind - these are people whose board game experience (like my own) didn't venture outside Monopoly or Cluedo. Now they nearly come to blows arguing over cardboard cut-out zombies. EG really nailed the two types of mood here - you're either angry/frustrated/psychotic if one of your characters is involved in the vote to die, or you're not involved and usually crying with laughter at the debating going on around the table.

It still feels 'new' so I'm not sure how long we'll keep playing the game thoroughly, however it's brilliance hasn't diminshed yet and I'm eager (and a little scared) to see what will happen when alcohol is added to the mix.

darkmorgado wrote:
Went for my gaming night last night. Finally got round to Netrunner (awesome!) and then tried Eclipse for the first time with the Rise of the Ancients expansion. After 4 hours (bearing in mind 3 of us were first timers), this was the table at the end of the night....

Is that a custom made mat? Don't think my friend's version has one. We tend to expend outwards further than that though, so maybe that's why we never use it. Actually, surprised the chap playing green didn't want to move out further than he did, that green planty ailen's thing seems to be rapid expansion, or at least that's how I played it.

I've got a copy of Carcassonne on it's way to me. Going to try to get into this board game malarky, so starting with this and then probably Settlers of Catan, before trying anything more complex. I'm hoping I can get the gf interested in playing them.

darkmorgado wrote:
Went for my gaming night last night. Finally got round to Netrunner (awesome!) and then tried Eclipse for the first time with the Rise of the Ancients expansion. After 4 hours (bearing in mind 3 of us were first timers), this was the table at the end of the night....

Is that a custom made mat? Don't think my friend's version has one. We tend to expend outwards further than that though, so maybe that's why we never use it. Actually, surprised the chap playing green didn't want to move out further than he did, that green planty ailen's thing seems to be rapid expansion, or at least that's how I played it.

Erm, he said it didnt come with thegame and he had to order it separately. Not sure if it was official or custom, but it was high quality. Think he said it cost him a tenner inc delivery! Can ask him where he got it from if you want one?

Oh, and the green player was a right sneaky bastard! He allied with me, then went behind my back and did a sneaky alliance with the yellow, so then yellow went into my territory and forced me to go on the densive. Id over-reached myself with my build resources pretty early, so me and the grey player then had to ally ourselves just to cover each others' backs.

In the end though, yellow player's agression got the better of him, green expanded all over the place, but because we were protecting our borders with souped up dreadnoughts, neither of them could get in. But then we couldn't get out either....

So, did the green guy actually break your alliance and incur the penalty or just sneakily play both you and yellow off against each other? Don't think we've ever had a game where someone's broken an alliance, so I can't actually remember what the treachery penalty is.

I'll ask my mate if he's interested in getting one of those mats, but as we usually expand out as far as table space and number of tiles will let us, I'm not sure how often we'd use it.

No, he kept the alliance, he just let the yellow guy go after me, then provided him with some border defense to make sure he wasn't exposed! If you look at the board pic I posted, you can sort of see how the yellow one crept over to me, but I was next to grey. So green gave the yellow guy some cover (and yellow got cocky because he was friendly to the Ancients) in case - which obviously did end up happening, because we both saw it coming - me and grey allied to protect ourselves.

We lost though. Got the Ancient that instantly destroys the world the second he rises, and early on we lost a rumour that caused us to draw a second Mythos card every turn. After that, it seemed a gate spawned every single turn, monsters were blocking the streets, monsters were in the sky...

We managed to close a couple of gates, but just as we thought we were going to close another 2, a 7th gate spawned and we lost the game. Damn!

Already looking at the expansions. Was thinking of starting with one of the smaller ones, like Lurker at the Threshold.

Red November arrives tomorrow, then sometime early next week Android arrives, which I've heard is excellent but has a bloody thick manual.

Even got the lodger into it, and he's decided to buy Infiltration at the end of the month. Then next week we're going to play Game of Thrones.

Wow you've really gone for it haven't you? I think after Eclipse & Arkham Horror you will find Game of Thrones a little weak. However if you liked the alliances in Eclipse you might get something out of GoT. It's just a fantasy 'Diplomacy' if you ask me. Red November is 'ok', but not great I think.

Android has lovely pieces and a super theme, but it's a bit complicated. I have only ever played it once, every time I try to get it on the table people get scared and we end up with something lighter.

Talking of Android can I throw this out to anyone? I have a big collection of original Netrunner cards. Classic, Proteus, lots of rares, a good (and heavy) collection. Anyone interested in buying/swapping for it? It really is a superb game and the original like this is much better than the FFG reboot. PM me if you're interested.

@darkmorgado It was indeed a CCG hence my unfeasibly large collection of cards! Cosmic Encounter is one of my favourite games of all time. The opportunities to double cross, gang up on, be smug and generally act like a tyrant are unrivalled! Such fun!